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Description

We’re pleased to invite you to TRANSFORMA Theatre Inc.'s first annual gala with the goal of raising funds to produce an Off-Broadway run of an interactive theatrical experience that blends art and science, The Female Role Model Project in the Fall/Winter of 2018/19. TRANSFORMA Theatre Inc. is a new Not-for-Profit Organization founded by Tjasa Ferme, Jacob Sebag and Natalie Kacinik.

The Female Role Model Project is a scientifically enhanced multimedia devised theatre piece created by an ensemble of female-identified artists of varying ages, races, ethnicities and sexualities, exploring representations of female role models and their evolution in a world confronting us with cataclysmic environmental change, cataclysmic political change, and the possibility of transforming our brains.

It combines theatrical performance and interactive games with live recordings of neural activity from both actors and audience members using Emotiv EEG headsets.

EVENT PROGRAM:

7pm: wine and mingle

7.30: performance excerpts of The Female Role Model Project

8.30: Swing band Three Bad Pennies and Brain Synchrony Visualization

Before and after program: Silent Auction, Live Portrait Painting By Barnaby Ruhe

In one of the scenes, two actresses pair up with two audience members, one pair at a time. They each wear EEG headsets and share memories of their mother. Their brain activity is simultaneously displayed to the audience and interpreted by a cognitive neuroscientist.

Another scene consists of actresses wearing a different EEG headset with 14 electrodes connected to a sound machine that generates sounds based on their brain wave frequencies in real time. They impersonate their role models and then invite audience members to interview the role models, provoke them, and by changing their brain and emotional states become the DJ of their brains.

​PRODUCTION HISTORY:The Female Role Model Project was initially developed over a two-month period with producer/actor Tjasa Ferme, director Ana Margineanu and an ensemble of five female-identified artists. The group created the piece via improvisation, personal stories, physical and vocal exploration with CUNY's professor and cognitive neuroscientist Natalie Kacinikproviding live scientific insights and running the neuroscientific demonstrations.